The Ice Age
by Nathan1998
Summary: John, now the new Doctor, has attempts to return home. But when he overshoots, he lands in a future New England that is being devastated by a furious winter. People are dying, and the world doesn't know how much longer it can take it. But when a girl John saves tells him a story of a white demon, he begins to think that maybe there is more to the winter than meets the eye...
1. Chapter 1

So, for my first story, not many people reviewed. Please tell me what you guys think of the stories! I really want to know what I can do better and what not to do next time. And by the way, this story won't make much sense to you if you haven't read The Second Chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 1

Elizabeth hurried through the street, bundled against the wind. It blew hard against her, as if determined to keep her from reaching her warm, quiet home. She leaned forward, her scarf flapping violently. "When is this awful winter ever going to end?" She thought.

It was August, and New England was still having the harshest winter in its history. So was the rest of the world, for that matter. The winter had not stopped through June, July, and now August. Even though it had been predicted, no one had expected even half the harshness that came with it. Or the length. Farmers had been devastated, homes destroyed, and people killed. The first body in New England was in a small town in the south of Maryland. After that, the bodies had slowly moved up north, following the worst front of the winter. Reports had been coming in from around the world. People were dying. The world was not prepared for this.

Elizabeth's father had been the most recent casualty. His death had left Elizabeth and her mother, who had never been considered rich, penniless, and struggling to make ends meet. Both worked all day every day. And Elizabeth was just now going home.

As she stumbled into the wind, she felt something. A change. She stopped and turned her head to look. The street was deserted. Then why did she feel like she was being watched?

As she stood there, squinting into the wind, her heart suddenly froze. Not stopped, but as if a cold, icy hand had gripped it. She clutched her hand to her chest and screamed, falling to her knees in the snow. The pain numbed every part of her body, except her heart, which hurt more with every thump. She lifted her head to see an eerie white light at the end of the alleyway. It grew closer, and as it did, she noticed it was in the shape of a body. It was completely white, and its face was empty. No eyes, nose, or mouth. Just a blank, flat skull. It approached her slowly, without any hurry, then stopped, ten feet away. She could hear screams. People screaming, inside her head. At the back of her mind. She could feel every bit of heat being sapped from her body. She struggled for a moment, then grew still. She gave in as every warm feeling and memory was taken from her mind, being replaced instead with hate and anger. But she wasn't having those thoughts. They were being fed to the creature. Slowly, sucking the life out of her.

She heard and evil, low voice mumbling her name. At first, she could barely hear it over the screams. But the closer the creature got, the louder it spoke. Finally, when the voice was screaming her name, she slumped onto the ground, gazing into the sky, completely void of any strength to fight it.

As she did, something changed. The sky suddenly stopped being dark. It seemed to flicker with light. Although she wasn't able to form any coherent thought, she managed to wonder if this was death. But as she watched, the light grew clearer. And as it did, the freezing hand around her heart began to lessen. A wheezing and groaning filled the air, but it was a peaceful sound. The light above her finally solidified and the ice vanished altogether.

Elizabeth felt her vision flicker, and thought she could hear someone yelling something at her. 'It's so warm...' She thought. The evil voice was gone along with the screams. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

John flipped the controls, rushing around the TARDIS as it shook and rattled. He still hadn't quite gotten the hang of flying and couldn't seem to get her under control. Of course, six pilots was the ideal number and the only person he knew that could drive alone and not miss a beat was that old friend of his. Not his old friend. The Doctor's. Although, they were one and the same now...

Suddenly, he smacked himself in the forehead. "Idiot." He muttered. He sprang around the console and yanked a lever down. The TARDIS gave on last enormous jolt, then was still. John propped himself up on his elbows from where the TARDIS had thrown him and chuckled.

"Good old hand brake. Works every time."

He hopped up and ran around the console to the monitor, which always seemed to be on the verge of cracking into pieces but, somehow, never did. "Where are we?" He asked the TARDIS, which of course didn't respond. It rarely did. Once in a while though, John could understand her. Maybe a left over from the Doctor's memories of looking into the time stream. On his way around, he saw a girl lying on the floor, down off the pedestal. "Good evening, afternoon, morning, whenever it is I've landed..."

Suddenly, he froze. There was a girl on the TARDIS floor! He slapped his forehead again. Why did he keep doing that? He turned. The girl hadn't moved.

"Oi!" He shouted. "What are you doing in my TARDIS?!"

The girl didn't move.

"And since when do I talk with a British accent?" He mumbled to himself as descended the steps toward her.

She looked to be about his age. Well, his body's age, anyway. Black, curly hair, fair skin, and extremely bundled with warm clothing. He shook her.

"Hello! What happened to you, I wonder..."

He pushed open her eye to reveal dark brown irises. But something was odd. Her eye was misty, as if covered with some sort of film. Then he realized it was ice.

"Must be rather cold to be freezing your tears." He said. "But you're not dead. Hmm...weird. Oh well. I'll figure it out when you wake up. I hope..."

He picked her up without much effort and carried her out of the console room. He barely had to walk twenty feet before he found a small room, ready for her. "Huh. The TARDIS must like you." He said. He set her on the bed in the room and took off her coat's and scarf and mittens, leaving her sleeping in a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt. Then he left the room, closing the door behind him.

When he arrived back at the console, he immediately went to the monitor. Typing in a few commands, he brought up a small biography of the girl. He murmured to himself as he looked through her information.

"Hmmm...Elizabeth Williams...Born 2004...disappeared August 21, 2021? Interesting." He raised an eyebrow. "When am I?" He quickly brought up the date on the console. His brain raced as he read it. "10:32 p.m., August 20...2021."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"What?!" John yelled, slapping the monitor. "How does someone freeze to death in the middle of August?"

He rushed down to the door and flung it wide, then stumbled back as a blast of freezing air hit him. "Oh. That's how." He said as he closed the door and turned. "Winter in the middle of August. That's not good...even for New England..."

He walked back to the monitor and stared at it. "disappearing tomorrow, are we?" He whispered. "But why?"

Elizabeth woke to feel warmth completely surrounding her like she hadn't felt in months.

"Where am I?" She wondered. "Oh, it's so warm..."

Then she remembered the wraith and opened her eyes. The ceiling was completely white. For that matter, so was everything else in the room. The only things with any color were her coat and scarf, draped on a chair a few feet away. She sat up on her bed, slowly, being sure not to make herself dizzy. She looked around the room, wondering what to do next. But as she stared, she noticed the door. As it was painted white along with everything else, she hadn't seen it before.

"Why not?" She said out loud. "It's not any more dangerous than sitting in here and waiting."

She approached the door, cautiously. She reached out and touched it, then sprang back as it slid open to reveal a dark hallway. The little light there was pulsing as if in time with a heartbeat. She stepped out into the corridor and turned to her right, noticing the dead-end to the left. The passage turned a corner, then stopped. At the end, there was a normal looking door, like she would've seen in any house back in her city. The knob felt warm when she touched it. Giving it a twist, she stepped through the door.

"Blast!" John yelled as the cord slipped from between his fingers. "Stop shuddering! And why is it you always need repairs, eh?" He slapped the glass ceiling above his head, which was actually the floor to the pedastle of the console. The TARDIS merely shuddered again, as if laughing. "Oh, shut up. I don't have an instruction manual, I threw it away years ago. Besides, it's not like you care about instructions. The sign on your front door you get so mad at me about. How am I supposed to pull if you put on the hinges to push? Eh?" The room shuddered again. "Oh, stop it." John grumbled. "You're making my head hurt."

A small gasp sounded behind him. He whirled around to see Elizabeth standing in the door to the hallway he had taken her through.

"Oh, you're awake." He stepped forward.

She shrank back, fear plainly evident on her face. "Where am I?" She spoke in a shaky voice.

"You're in my TARDIS. Not sure how you got here though. Might've been my fault. I think I landed on you. I do that sometimes..."

She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jo...I'm the Doctor."

"The Doctor? Doctor...who?"

"Just the Doctor." He grinned. He wasn't sure why he didn't use his real name, but it just didn't feel right.

Elizabeth stared around the TARDIS with wide eyes. "What happened to the...thing?"

The Doctor's head tilted. "What thing?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I don't know. It looked like a ghost, but..."

The Doctor stepped over to the door and pulled it. It didn't budge. "Oh come on! Really? After 900 years of pushing you're going to switch your hinges and make me pull? Now come on, put them back." He pulled again and the door swung open. He poked his head out to find a deserted street. The wind still blew, the snow was still falling, but the street was empty.

"Nothing there." He said, turning around and closing the door. "What was it? Describe it."

She shuddered. "Like a person with white clothes that glowed. It's head didn't have a face, just a smooth front. When I saw it I could hear screams, like thousands of people were trapped inside it." She hugged herself. "That's all I remember."

The Doctor nodded slowly, studying her. She was quite pale, probably just left over from her scare. But her face held some sort of hidden look, like determination. Or stubbornness. "And why were you outside in this weather so late?"

"Going back home from my job. I work at the museum in the city. I'm a janitor."

"You work this late? What about you parents?"

"My dad died earlier this year. He froze."

"Yeah, about that. Has it been this way since winter? The weather, I mean."

Elizabeth nodded. "It felt at one point like spring was coming, then a huge snowstorm came and-"

She suddenly stopped, as if just realising she was actually talking.

"What am I doing? I don't even know you. Why am I talking to you? I need to get home..."

She turned, looking for a door. The Doctor watched her for a moment and, once she started toward the door, he threw up his hands. "Oh, all right! I'll take you!"

Elizabeth stopped and turned. "Thanks, but I can find my own way home. It's not far." She said stiffly.

The Doctor grabbed a coat and tossed it to her before taking another one for himself. "Yes, but I'm still going with you. Whether you like it or not."

Elizabeth looked him over for a moment, then shrugged. "Whatever." She said as she stepped out into the cold.


End file.
